An Organized School Year

As I am wrapping up the school year, I’ve come to the realization that one thing I could have done better to make my year easier is be more organized. Sure, I survived off of checklists and sticky notes, but I really slacked this year with organization. BAD.

Next school year, I am vouching to be better organized. I want a paper for all the important details.

And I don’t want it to look like a mount of paper chaos mess! I want cute binders to keep them in.

I also want to utilize technology more with keeping organized. I created these digital planners that can be used on a tablet! (But I also made some editable printable ones in Powerpoint too.) I am super enthused for this. Hello, copy and paste for quicker lesson planning! Especially, if you work for one of those districts that makes you write a 10 page spread every week. Yup, I have been there! I still got papers. But when I need to reference my lesson plans, I don’t want to flip through smudgy sheets with wrinkled edges and lots scribble scratch! I want to go swipe, swipe, select as I stand there looking all tech nerdy and slightly ingenious. Joking on the how I look part haha! Honestly, I could care less about that, lol! What I do want is an easier organization system, and honestly, swiping on a tablet to reference my lesson plans is a smoother transition for me.

Yes, I will still have my dear old friend, teacher binder because sometimes I still need good old paper. I got the standard things. Schedules. Check. Lesson Plans. Check. Calendars. Check. I’ve also added a yearly overview and peek at my week to have for quick references this year. Dear old paper has not become extinct for me quiet yet, but it may in the future as I get more use to being a paperless diva. 🙂

I am also a clipboard gal too. A long time ago, I had a mishap where a child was suppose to go with the car riders, and I sent him to after school care (that involved a bus) that day (which is where he normally went except for that one day a week as a car rider.) After being hugely embarrassed and apologetic to the mom (who was very understanding), I vowed to myself, I would never let that happen again…and I did not. I put a mode of transportation with a daily checklist on my to do list, and every day the children were sent where they were suppose to go because I checked it off as I lined them all up in different lines. One line was for car riders, one for after school care, and so on. Attendance is also another must on a clipboard. If there is fire drill, the clip board is already there in my hands most of the time or just an arm reach away.

Here is a video showing some of the forms I have created for improving classroom management. I also have daily forms that work well on a clipboard that I can check off.

The main thing is I want an easier organization system that is going to fit me. I am like a hybrid digital woman. I come from the age where we wrote our essays on paper, and I only first used the internet as a senior in high school. I was in my 20s when I first got internet in my home, so my mind still thinks somewhat better on paper with certain tasks, but sometimes I think better with utilizing some digital tools with it. So this year, this hybrid system is just what I need to stay organized the best. And most of all, I simply need an organization system that is going to help me keep my sanity.

Are you more a paper or a digital planner?

I would love to have a conversation about this in the comments below. Share your stories, please!